Elm tree divides Clifton neighbors

CLIFTON – An endangered tree has been a divisive point of contention for a pair of Delawanna section neighbors who disagree whether or not the timber should remain standing on their adjoining properties.

Also known as the white or water elm, the tree species, which can reach a height of 120 feet and live for more than 300 years, saw its population severely reduced after droughts in the 1930s and 1950s.

Though tall and sturdy, American elms were decimated by Dutch elm disease (DED) which infected the trees with a deadly strain of fungus spread by beetles.

Stabile said an arborist she hired from Bartlett Tree Inc. concluded that the tree adjacent to her back yard was a disease-resistant survivor elm more than 100 years old. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, only about 1 in 100,000 American elm trees is DED-tolerant. (In recent years there has been a revival in the elm's popularity due to new DED-tolerant elms.)

Shimon Sandler, however, who has lived next door for eight years, has paid a tree surgeon $2,000 to trim the elm on two separate occasions after portions of the tree's branches fell atop his roof.

"I have a wife and four children but even if I was a single man I wouldn't want this gigantic tree looming over my house," Sandler said. "It's very clear that the entire tree leans towards our house so everything I've worked towards my entire life is threatened."

The concerned neighbor said the local tree service company informed the Sandlers that if the tree was trimmed back any more it could compromise its stability and, as a result, recommended that it be taken down.

However, Sandler said the crane truck required for the job would need to utilize Stabile's driveway to access the tree; a driveway which she refuses to offer.

"This has been an ongoing battle for numerous years," Stabile said. "One day, he knocked on my door asking permission for a bucket truck to use my driveway and I flat out refused him or anyone else permission on my property."

Further complicating the issue, the two neighbors also disagree on whose property the tree stands.

"It's clearly my tree," Sandler said. "We have the survey of the property and not only do we own the tree but [her] driveway encroaches on nine inches of my property."

Though Stabile conceded that the last survey showed the tree to be on her neighbor's property, she said the survey is from 1967 and is inaccurate.

She said when the home was built in 1930; it was the first house in the area, which is why it sits sideways compared to the other Rutherford Boulevard properties. At that time, she said the elm was part of her property but when the home next-door was built, the surveyors made about eight inches of her driveway part of Sandler's property.

"You can physically see this by the stakes that run in a straight line up the driveway which, in that case, run directly into that American elm tree," she said. "I think the surveyors did the wrong thing and should have made a note on both of our surveys that we share this tree."

Stabile said she contacted the county surveyor's office to resurvey her property but her request was denied.

"I don't think they're being very neighborly," Sandler said of his neighbors. "They're giving me a hard time and I really don't see what the big deal is. Get a life, it's a stupid tree."

David Yennior, a local chairman of the Sierra Club, America's oldest environmental group, said it would be a shame if it is cut down because, as an endangered American elm which is DED-tolerant, it is known as a "survivor" tree.

"They're very rare," he added. "I suggested that she get a tree surgeon and certify that the tree is safe. Every different tree has a risk factor. Some have deep roots, some don't, but a tree surgeon would know generally. However, I've never heard of an elm tree falling because they are extremely sturdy."

Yennior, a self-proclaimed tree advocate, stipulated he had never visited the tree in question.

Although Stabile said a local tree service deemed the elm to be "okay" approximately eight years ago, she could not confirm whether it was ever certified as safe by a tree surgeon.